An Assortment of Adorable Affections
by FoxOnPie
Summary: A series of prompts for Dianakko Week 2017. Day #6/7: In Which Akko Lives on the Edge while Fighting Crime and Spinning Webs.
1. Children's Card Games with Witches

"I can't believe you, Diana," Akko said, trying her best to hold back tears. "After all we've been through together, you actually do something like this! How could you?!"

"You're surprised?" Diana asked. "Nothing that's happened between us could ever have anything to do with this, Akko. Frankly, it's rather insulting that you're naive enough to think otherwise." It was at this point that Akko actually did start crying.

During the entire time that Akko had known Diana, the two of them had gone through dangerous situation after dangerous situation, together. Fighting Diana's aunt and cousins so she could claim her inheritance. Flying into the stratosphere to blow up a magic nuclear missile and prevent World War Five. Forcing down their respective feelings of anxiety in their attempts to ask the other one out. Each situation tested their bond with each other more than the last, but if Akko had to weigh in on the matter, she would say that the current predicament her and her girlfriend were in had more weight put into it than all three combined, and the end result could very well make or break their relationship.

However, given the fact that the two of them were playing the Shiny Chariot trading card game, it would be safe to assume that Akko would exaggerate any amount of stress that a children's card game could add.

"So what Diana did just now was bad, then?" Sucy asked.

"Are you seriously asking me that?!" Akko shouted. "Thanks to Diana's Gae Bolg, she was able to destroy my Sealed Giant because it only had three defense! Then, by activating Tricorn's ability and discarding three Moon Tokens from her Token Farm, she was able to bypass Gae Bolg's side effect of leaving her unable to attack this turn and launch a direct attack with both it and her Woodward, bringing me down to my last Shiny Rod Star!"

"Oh, okay. ...So is that bad, or not?"

"Yes, it's bad!"

"Very good for me, though," Diana said with a playful smirk. Akko growled in response while Sucy just rolled her eye. "Don't be like that, Akko. You shouldn't have assumed that forcing myself to hide my admiration of Shiny Chariot for ten years would dull my skills at the game. Because of that, you're down to one Star, no monsters to defend yourself, and only one card in your hand. It's over! You're going to be utterly defeated in front of everyone, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Speaking on behalf of 'everyone,' can you two hurry the hell up?!" Amanda shouted from the table in the cafeteria next to the one Akko and Diana were sitting at. "You said we'd all go into town after you two dueled each other, and that was an hour ago!"

"I'm just as surprised as you are; these duels usually take longer than that." Amanda then proceeded to bang her head against the table. Judging by the expressions on Sucy, Lotte, Constanze, Hannah, Barbara, and even Jasminka's faces, it was safe to say that the card game was trying their patience, as well.

"It's all going to be over soon, though!" Akko shouted. "I'm not giving up! I'll never lose as long as I have my believing heart of the cards!" With that said, Akko drew a card from the top of her deck, an action done with such speed and precision that it looked like an arc of light was formed in the air. Then, after looking at the card, a massive grin appeared on her face.

"Did you draw a good card, Akko?" Lotte asked, immediately followed by Constanze giving a groan as if to say "Please don't encourage this."

"The best! I discard seven Star Tokens from my Token Farm to play Shoot the Moon!" Akko slammed the card she drew down on the table, one bearing a picture of Shiny Chariot firing a blast from her Shiny Arc and leaving a star-shaped crater on the moon.

"Shoot the Moon? I've never heard of that card, before!" Diana shouted.

"Of course you haven't. This card's from the revival series that just started a few months ago. You might have not lost any of your skill over the last ten years, but I held onto something, too: my booster pack subscription!" Diana appeared shocked by the statement, and as far as Akko was concerned, so was everyone else.

"With Shoot the Moon, since I have less than four Shiny Rod Stars left, I can reduce the defense of all Moon Mana Monsters on your side of the field to zero until the end of the turn, which both your Tricorn and Woodward are!"

"Oh no!" Diana shouted.

""Oh no,"" everyone else monotoned.

"But that's not all, Diana, my dear! I then get to draw cards equal to one third of the total defense of your Monsters. Tricorn had three defense, and Woodward had nine, so that adds up to twelve, meaning I get to draw four cards!"

"Leave it to Akko to make a big thing out of basic math," Hannah said as Akko drew her cards.

"Maybe next she'll do a one man play on dental hygiene," Barbara added.

"But I'm not done yet!" Akko said, ignoring the comments of Diana's teammates. "Now I'll discard nine Sun Tokens to summon the monster that'll win me the game: Lernaean Hydra!" Akko slammed a new card onto the field, this one depicting a large, reptilian creature with so many heads that they barely all fit into the frame of the card.

"Twelve attack points, twelve defense points…" Diana trailed off as her eyes continued to be things that weren't wholly trustworthy.

"That's not all it has! My Lernaean Hydra gets an additional attack every time I discard a card from my hand. I have four cards, meaning I can not only destroy both of your monsters, but I can wipe out your three remaining Shiny Rod Stars! Lernaean Hydra, attack Tricorn!"

"..." Diana took Tricorn off the field and put it in the graveyard with a frown.

"Now I'll discard my Polaris Fountain to destroy Woodward!" The attack went through and Diana removed her card from the field. "Next I'll discard my Wyvern to attack you, directly!" The attack went through. "I'll discard my British Red Dragon to do it again!" The attack went through. "And now, Diana, I'll discard my Shiny Chariot: Swimsuit Edition to win the duel!"

"I don't think so!" Diana shouted. "I activate the effect of the Pappiliodya in my hand! By discarding it, I can negate an attack that would reduce my Shiny Rod Stars to zero and automatically end the turn!"

"Aw, come _on_!" Amanda shouted, the looks on the rest of the girls' faces conveying similar anger. "Why is it so hard for you two to end this dumbass game?!"

"The fact that neither of us can give in at this point is just proof of our skill."

"I think you're missing the point, Diana," Sucy said.

"My turn," Diana said, ignoring Sucy's comment.

"Heh heh heh heh," Akko chuckled in a manner that wasn't at all sensible. "Draw your last pathetic card so I can end this, Diana."

"My deck has no pathetic cards, Akko. But it does contain…" With a face oozing with confidence, Diana flipped around the card she just drew to reveal a giant, gray-skinned man wearing a lion pelt as a coat, "The Mighty Hercules!"

"What?!" Akko's smirk completely faded and was replaced with a look of utter shock. "Impossible!"

"I think you'll find it to be _very_ possible."

"So… is this a good card, or something?" Sucy asked.

"Not only does Hercules have fifteen attack, three more than Lernaean Hydra's twelve, but when Hercules destroys a monster, by discarding all of my Star Tokens, I can roll a seven-sided die, and if the result is the same as the difference between their attack and defense, I can automatically destroy one of my opponent's Shiny Rod Stars."

"So that means-"

"If Diana rolls a three, this game is finally fucking over!" Amanda cheered, the rest of the girls quickly joining in.

 _Nonononononononononono NO!_ Akko screamed inside her head. _I don't have any cards in my hand or graveyard that can help me (whose neck do you have to sting with a Cupid Bee for a Pappiliodya around here?), so I can't defend myself against the attack! Plus, knowing Diana and her luck, she's not going to have any trouble rolling that three, so once Lernaean Hydra's destroyed, I'm done for!_

 _I have to distract her! I have to throw her off her game!_

"I attack Lernaean Hydra with The Mighty Hercules," Diana said.

 _Something!_

"And now I discard all of my Star Tokens to activate my monster's ability."

 _Anything!_

"It's time to end this duel, once and for-"

"DIANA!" Acting purely on instinct, Akko jumped out of her chair, flew across the table, and tackled Diana to the ground, kissing her the second their bodies made contact. Absolutely no one looked surprised by this.

 _The things my brain can do when I feel like having it do things,_ Akko told herself as she pulled away from Diana. "How do you like _that_ , Diana?"

"I like it a lot, actually," Diana said.

"Well, I have been practicing with these guides I found online and you're not talking about the kiss, are you?" Diana simply pointed to her left and directed Akko's attention to what needed to be seen.

Somehow, in the midst of the confusion, Diana had thrown her die, and it landed perfectly on a three.

"WE'RE FREE!" Amanda shouted at the sight of the result. Lotte, Constanze, and Jasminka joined in the cheering while Sucy just smiled and Hannah and Barbara held each other as they cried tears of joy.

"I want a rematch!" Akko said.

"You're on," Diana said, leaning up to kiss Akko, herself.

"Are you serious?!"

* * *

 **I know I'm kinda cheating on this one, but day one is stars** _ **slash**_ **astrology, and I didn't really feel like being the 100th person to have the two just make out under the stars (not that there's anything wrong with that, just felt like doing something different).**

 **Also, if you don't quite get what sort of mythology Akko's acting out, she's a Cancer, so look up the mythology associated with that.**


	2. Half-Pint East Meets Half-Pint West

"Are we there yet, Mommy?"

"Not yet, sweetie."

"Are we there yet, Daddy?"

"You heard your mother, Akko. Just play with Alcor until we get there."

"Okay, but it's not what I wanted."

For a six-year old Atsuko "Akko" Kagari, today was the most important day of her entire life. Today was the day she would try her hardest to remember for the rest of her life. The amount of excitement this day was generating within her would be enough to power an entire fleet of clown cars; she was that excited for the day.

Today was the day that Shiny Chariot, world famous stage performing witch and idol to millions of children just like Akko, was coming to Japan for a live performance.

Akko was barely able to contain herself when her father said that he won three tickets at work. To think she actually had a chance to see her idol live, as opposed to just on TV. Sure, Shiny Chariot's popularity had fallen a great deal from when she first started a year and a half ago, but to Akko, she was still the greatest person in the entire world, or at least up there with her parents and Santa Claus, and nothing would stop her from seeing her.

"Are we there yet?" As such, it's natural that her impatience would be even higher than normal.

"Very soon, Akko," Mr. Kagari said with thinly veiled annoyance. Akko went back to playing with her Alcor doll, but impatience quickly got the best of her, once more. She was all set to ask if they were there yet another time, but before the words could escape her lips, the car suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, dear?" Mrs. Kagari asked.

"Look up the road. That car up ahead just died and the woman's just kicking at the wheels. I don't think she knows what to do, at all."

" _Someone_ 's not going to be happy," Mrs. Kagari said, catching sight of Akko growing more and more disgruntled in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, well life is full of disappointments." Mr. Kagari pulled off to the side, parked the car, and stepped outside.

"Where's Daddy going?" Akko asked.

"Oh, he's just being spontaneously altruistic," Mrs. Kagari said. Akko raised an eyebrow in a quizzical manner. "That means he's randomly being nice to strangers."

"But I wanna go to the show!" Akko shouted, kicking the back of her mother's car seat.

"Looks like I didn't miss that much." Fortunately for Mrs. Kagari, her husband didn't take long to come back, meaning their child could redirect her frustration towards him.

"Daddy! Can we please go, now?!"

"Of course, sweetie. By the way, we're going to have some company with us for a little while. That woman's car is completely dead, and it's not a good idea for anyone to be stranded in the middle of the road when it's almost dark."

"Noooo! I don't want to waste time taking people somewhere we don't need to go! Can't we leave them here? There shouldn't be a lot of lions or tigers or bears around, I think, so please?!" In the midst of her daughter's tantrum, Mrs. Kagari simply flashed her husband a look as if to say "How, exactly, did you expect this to go?"

"I'm sorry, Akko, but we can't just leave her here. She doesn't have a phone, so who knows how long it'd take for her to get help on her own? Honestly, those witches should be a little more prepared for whenever they hang out in our world."

"That's not fair! That's not fair! That's not-did you say witch?!"

"Yep."

"She's a witch?! A real witch?!"

"Yep."

"Is she going to see Shiny Chariot?!"

"That's right." In response to her father's third confirmation, Akko squealed at the top of her lungs.

"You probably should have just started with that," Mrs. Kagari said, her husband just shrugging in response.

"Okay, you can come along, ma'am!" Mr. Kagari called out toward the other car.

"Oh, that's wonderful! Thank you so much," a new voice said. Akko didn't need a lot of guesswork to figure out that this was the witch her father was talking about. Her very first real-live witch. She was so excited that having to wait the few seconds it would take for her to walk to the car were unbearable. Not wanting to deal with that, she swung the door open and jumped out of the car to greet the witch.

"Hi, Witch Lady!" Akko said as soon as she ran up to the woman when she was a couple meters away from the car. "My name's Akko! I love magic, and it's awesome to meet you!"

"My, aren't you excitable? My name is Bernadette Cavendish, and it's a pleasure to meet you, as well, Akko," the woman, Bernadette, said. She was a tall woman wearing a light-blue dress with matching eyes and blonde hair with green stripes running through it.

"Mrs. Cavendish, we don't want to be late for the show, so you and your daughter should get in. That goes double for you, Akko!" Mr. Kagari said.

"'Daughter'?" Akko repeated. Wordlessly, Bernadette stepped over to the left and Akko's eyes widened at what she saw: a girl who looked like a miniature version of Bernadette, only with eyes a darker shade of blue and a cape and witch's hat that matched Akko's.

"Hello. My name is Diana. It's a pleasure to meet you," the girl, Diana, said in Japanese as flawless as her mother's.

"Are you a witch, too?!" Diana nodded her head. "That's so cool! I've never seen anyone the same age as me who could use magic! And you like Shiny Chariot, too! You're so cool!"

"Th-Thank you," Diana said with a sheepish blush, one that grew even bigger as Akko grabbed her hand and dragged her into the car, sitting Diana down right next to her.

"Your daughter certainly has a lot of energy," Bernadette said to Mr. Kagari as she, herself, entered the car.

"Yeah, that's one way of looking at it," Mr. Kagari said as he stepped back into the driver's seat.

"I must say, Bernadette, I'm a little surprised that you and your daughter didn't just fly to the show," Mrs. Kagari said.

"Well, magic doesn't actually work wherever we might want it to. Not only that, but Diana and I sort of came here in secret," Bernadette said with a small laugh.

"So no one who knows you knows that you're here?"

"Pretty much. My family is actually a bit on the affluent side, and it would have drawn quite a deal of negative attention towards us if anyone found out that I wanted to take my daughter to a Shiny Chariot show. She isn't very liked in the magical community, you see; most people see her style of magic as nothing but parlor tricks that belittle the craft. I think it's quite lovely, though."

"It's better than lovely, it's super special awesome!" Akko shouted.

"Yeah! Shiny Chariot's the coolest witch in the world, and the people who don't like her just because she likes making people happy with magic are just dumb!" Diana added.

"All the stuff Diana said, times infinity and a half!"

"Well, why don't we all go see her for ourselves, then?" Mr. Kagari asked as he turned on the ignition.

""Yay!"" Akko and Diana exclaimed in unison.

* * *

The show was everything Akko had dreamed of, and a great deal more than that. Seeing Shiny Chariot live was a spectacle that, to Akko's childish mind, couldn't be topped by anything. The magic, the sights, the charm, all of it was spectacular. Even more so, however, because Akko was seeing it with a new friend.

"And then there was this part where she shot out all these lasers that turned into animals and fairies and one of them kissed my nose and it was awesome!" Akko said, recounting the events of the show as if no one had been there to witness it.

"What about the part with all the water that turned into space, and then Chariot turned into a mermaid? I loved that part!" Diana said.

"Me too!"

"Personally, I'm just glad I didn't drown," Mr. Kagari said. "But if I did, is there a spell that could've brought me back?"

"Yes, it's called CPR," Bernadette said.

"And then! And then!" Akko shouted. "Then she turned into a centaur, but then these dragons showed up! There was this frog one and one that was made out of blocky thingies, and it was really scary. Oh, but Diana was scared more than me."

"Was not!" Diana said.

"Yeah huh. You were squeezing my hand suuuuper hard."

"O-Only because you started it!"

"Yeah, well…" Akko trailed off as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.

"So, the dragons?" Mrs. Kagari asked.

"Right! They were super scary, but Chariot didn't afraid of anything!"

"She got on top of Alcor, pulled out Shiny Rod, and said the magic words to blow them all away!" Diana exclaimed.

"Noctu-"

"Orfei-"

"Aude-"

""Fraetor! Shinyyyyyyyyyy Arc!"" Akko and Diana shouted in unison, each posing like they had a bow and arrow in their hands for a few seconds before letting loose a torrent of laughter.

"Sounds like you two had fun," Bernadette said.

"We sure did, Mrs. Diana's Mom!" Akko said. "This was the most greatest thing I've ever seen! I wanna be just like Chariot when I grow up!"

"Me, too!" Diana said. "Wait, we can't both be like Chariot, can we?"

"Sure we can! I'll be Chariot in Japan, you'll be Chariot in England, and then we'll come together for a double Chariot super party! How's that sound?"

"That sounds great, Akko!" Diana said, bringing in her new friend for a hug immediately reciprocated, the twinkling light of the stars and the stagnant light of the moon providing their own natural spotlight.

* * *

"After the hug, my dad got a call from his friend saying that he got his tow truck ready to take Mrs. Cavendish's car to her hotel. It was really sad to know that Diana and Mrs. Cavendish were going to be leaving soon, but then my dad said that we were gonna get ice cream, first! The ice cream was so good, and the reason it was so good was because it was flavored with sprinkles of newfound friendship… and regular sprinkles.

"And that's the story of my first date with Diana. The end," a teenage Akko said, moving her hands as if the air between them was a book being closed before she and Diana turned their attention to their seven friends.

"Aww, that's so adorable!" Jasminka said, munching on a donut.

"Gotta admit, all the mushy, lovey-dovey stuff between you two usually makes me wanna barf, but I gotta go with Jasna on that being pretty cute," Amanda said.

"Thank you. That's surprisingly nice, coming from you," Diana said, ignoring the glare Amanda sent her a moment later.

"Wait, I thought your first date was when you went to the Enchanted Parade in town," Lotte said.

"I distinctly remember you not shutting up for a week about the whole thing, no matter how many poisons I slipped into your food," Sucy said.

"I'm gonna ignore that last part," Akko said. "And yeah, I _guess_ that one is a more accurate first date, since we were actually old enough for dating, but I like the other one more because of the sentimental value, and whatnot. Also, I got farther on the one I just told you about than our other first date."

"In what regard?" Diana asked, raising an eyebrow in a quizzical manner.

"We got ice cream!" Diana just smiled awkwardly.

"Mhm." Immediately after that, Constanze let out a groan.

"Excellent question, Constanze. 'If we knew each other all the way back then, how come we never said anything when we met at school?'"

"Well, it _was_ ten years ago," Diana said. "No one's memory is going to be perfect. We didn't really remember until we started dating, so I guess romance is just able to bring up a great deal of things within you."

""Makes sense,"" Hannah and Barbara said, nodding in unison as they held each other's hands.

"Not only that, but we were both _way_ different from when we first met," Akko said. "I mean, I thought Diana looked kinda familiar, but I never knew anyone who was such a total bitch to me. Now, though, I get that she's just as nice and sweet as she was back then, maybe even more!"

"As for me, I, for the life of me, couldn't recall ever meeting anyone so unbearably stupid," Diana said. "But now, well… Akko sure is pretty, isn't she?"

"Hey!" Akko's shout was drowned out by the laughter of her friends.

"Oh, did I make you upset? Well, how about we go back to my room and I give you something a little bit sweeter than ice cream?"

"You mean pie?" Diana put a finger to the tip of her nose. "Yay!"

* * *

 **Maybe it's because I'm kinda new to the fandom and might've missed some stuff from the early days, but I don't think I've ever seen a story where Akko and Diana become friends at Chariot's show, which is weird, because that'd be such an easy plot to work with, especially in ship fics like this one.**


	3. How PDA Messes with Doing Machines

Many people assumed that Constanze, with her obsession with robotics and tendency to speak two words a year, didn't have an easy time dealing with people and made very little effort to do something about it. It'd be easy to say that those people were wrong to assume something like that, but as Constanze, herself, would attest to, they were pretty much on the money. From a young age, Constanze never gave much thought to the "necessity" of social interaction. So long as she had food, robots, and a decent education, what else did she need in life? Nothing, that's what.

This was the mindset that Constanze had when she first went into Luna Nova. Now in her second year, it was still present, but in a notably smaller degree. While she didn't have a large group of people she went out of her way to associate with, the ones she did spend time with were certainly close enough for her to call them friends. The closest, naturally, were her roommates, Amanda and Jasminka, always there to lighten the mood with hot-blooded commentary and cold-blooded snacks. The three of them sometimes got into more trouble than Constanze would've liked, but at least they kept things interesting.

Someone who, surprisingly, rivaled the two of them combined in regards to intrigue was most certainly one Atsuko "Akko" Kagari. The girl was brash, lazy, self-centered, obnoxious, and an overall idiot, essentially everything Constanze looked to avoid when dealing with people. For most of her freshman year, little happened to make Constanze change this opinion. However, when Akko forced her way into being Constanze's assistant for the Wild Hunt, Constanze came to understand that, in addition to all of the negative qualities Akko had, she was also a resourceful person who put her all into everything she did and never gave up on something she got herself involved with, especially people's lives. Qualities that Constanze, herself, had within her. The bond that formed between them was a strange one, but not at all unwelcome.

That bond was what brought Constanze to her current interaction with Akko. In a matter of weeks, the Wild Hunt would begin anew, and Constanze, wanting Akko's assistance, reached out to her for a repeat of their previous partnership. Akko could do things Constanze couldn't, and if she had any ideas like the Grand Charion, she'd certainly be a tremendous asset.

"Constanze! It's me! Open up!" Speak of the devil. It appeared that Akko had arrived, so Constanze got up from her bed and opened the door for her.

"Mrmm?" Any semblance of a smile that might have been on her face turned into a neutral expression when she saw that Akko wasn't alone.

"Good evening, Constanze." The other person was none other than Diana Cavendish. Straight A student, daughter of one of the oldest families in the magical community, admittedly very attractive. Constanze didn't have many interactions with Diana, mainly because Amanda couldn't stand her, but the two have hung out more in the past several months thanks to Akko entering a relationship with her. Not a great deal, though, and Constanze certainly hadn't told Akko to bring her along.

"So, Constanze! I know that I sort of, kind of, technically didn't ask if Diana could come along, but now that I already went to the trouble of bringing her here, can she come with us?"

"Mrmm…" Constanze mumbled.

"Did she say yes, Akko?" Diana asked.

"No, no she did not," Akko said. "Please, Constanze! I know I'm being selfish and just want to spend more time with my new girlfriend, but think about it! If someone as dumb as me was able to give you tons of help, a super genius like Diana would give you, like, metric tons of help, and if you don't think so, then she'll just sit in the corner and not say or touch anything, so pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!"

"...Mrmmm," Constanze mumbled.

"She said yes, Diana!" Akko shouted, bringing her girlfriend in for a hug.

"Mrmm!"

"Akko, I might not be able to understand her that well, but I think it's pretty clear that she's annoyed," Diana said.

"R-Right. Well, then, to the secret lab!" Akko ended the hug and interlocked her hand with Diana's to bring her to Constanze's bed.

"Mrmm," Constanze mumbled.

"Actually, I think Diana should pull the lever," Akko said, Diana giving a hesitant "OK" afterwards. Following this, Akko stepped behind Diana and put her arms around her waist.

"A-Akko!" Diana stammered.

"Just trying to make sure you do it right," Akko said, slowly guiding her arms up to Diana's arms. "We just grab at the bedpost together and pull, niiice and easy."

"Mrmm! Mmm-" Constanze's mumbles were ignored by the two as Diana pulled the bedpost on the bottom left. As opposed to the one on the top left that would have opened the tunnel to the lab, this one opened a much smaller trap door that only Constanze fell through.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Diana asked as she heard a splash of water.

Thirty seconds later, Constanze re-entered the room with a slam of the door, water dripping off of her uniform, and what appeared to be an alligator biting her butt.

"To be fair, Constanze, to be fair… why do you even have that lever?" Akko asked.

* * *

"You know, Diana, there's something about seeing a rich girl do manual labor that's just really, _really_ attractive," Akko said as she watched Diana carry a box of parts.

"Oh, really? Why's that?" Diana asked with a smirk.

"Don't know, really. Maybe it's just the thought of someone who's never had to lift a finger before getting all hot and sweaty for the first time. Their pristine bodies glistening with the glow of hard work for the first time."

"So now I glow?"

"Only a little more than usual," Akko said, stepping behind Diana and kissing her on the cheek. Diana turned her head and returned the kiss, not noticing that the box was slipping out of her fingers.

"Mmmmm!" Constanze mumbled from her desk, catching their attention mere seconds before Diana lost the box.

"Sorry, sorry!" Akko said, helping Diana pull up the box and put it down next to the sketch Constanze was working on, still using the close proximity to kiss her.

Constanze had now decided that out of all forms of social interaction, romantic ones were her least favorite. If dealing with people was distracting on its own, then dealing with people you wanted to suck the face of was even more so.

"Mmmm," Constanze mumbled at Akko.

"Blowtorch, got it!" Akko said, rifling through the box until she pulled out a blowtorch. "Oh, Diana, Constanze wants you to get a gigavolt battery from the shelf over there."

"Understood," Diana said, walking over to the nearby shelf before stopping at it with a puzzled look.

"Mrrm," Constanze mumbled at Akko.

"Diana, Constanze says it's the big one on the right up top," Akko said.

"Thank you," Diana said, climbing a ladder up to the battery she now knew the location of.

"Look at you, grabbing batteries and junk. You're so adorable."

"Stop it, please," Diana said with a blush.

"Oh, you know you love it when I sweet talk my big sweetie."

"Mmmm! Mmmmm!"

"Yeah, she really is the fire of my soul, isn't she? Diana, Constanze agrees that you're the fire of my soul!"

"That's very sweet of her!" Diana called out from atop the ladder.

"I know, right?!"

"MMMMMM! MMMMMM!" Constanze started tugging on Akko's sleeve.

"What? What's the ma-OH MY GOD, FIRE!" What had apparently happened was that, in the midst of her flirting, Akko had accidentally pulled the trigger on the blowtorch, setting Constanze's drawing ablaze.

"What?!" Diana shouted, jumping off of the ladder with the battery under her armpit.

"FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" A legion of Stanbots appeared with tiny buckets of water, each one throwing the contents onto the paper.

"I'll fix this!" Diana shouted, pulling out her wand. "Scrylla Yera Retoure!" In an instant, time froze around Constanze's desk, the destruction coming to a complete halt. Then, as if someone hit the rewind button on reality, the entire scene played out in reverse until the drawing was as it was before.

"Yay! Nice one, Diana!" Akko said with a smile. "Isn't she just the best, Con-" Akko quickly shut herself up when she saw the livid glare Constanze was giving her and Diana.

"Mmmmm! Mrmrmrmm, mrrrrrmmmrm, mmmmm! Mmrmrmrm…" Suddenly ceasing her string of mumbles, Constanze walked over to Diana, pulled the battery she got out of her arms and shoved it in her face.

"Um… Oh, I see. This is a _mega_ volt battery, not a gigavolt," Diana said.

"Mrmmmmmm!"

"Diana, I don't think you need a translation to know that we should leave, right now!" Akko shouted, grabbing Diana's hand and pulling her to the elevator as Constanze aimed a bazooka at the couple.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Constanze neither saw nor heard anything from Akko and Diana, and as far as she was concerned, it was a situation she could live with. Amanda might actually have been onto something with her constant hatred of Diana, and Akko seemed to be a less complex individual than she thought. They certainly weren't the kind of people Constanze needed to associate with.

"Constanze, are you in there?" Speak of the devil. Diana, for whatever reason, was knocking on her door.

"Mrmmm!" Constanze mumbled at the door.

"I know you're mad at Akko and I, but I just want to talk to you."

"Mrmrmrmrmmm!"

"Well, if I'm truly unable to understand you, how have I been talking to you, this whole time?"

"Mmm?" Constanze's eyes widened at the sudden realization: Diana was, indeed, responding to everything she was saying.

"Yes, it's true, but please don't test me, as I'm still getting the hang of this. Just please open the door, Constanze."

"...Mmmm." Most likely against her better judgement, Constanze got up from her bed and opened the door to her room. Standing in the doorway was not only Diana, but Akko, the latter having tears and snot running down her face.

"I'm so sorry, Constanze!" Akko said through her tears. "I'm sorry I forced you to let Diana come and then made an alligator bite you on the butt and then got a box of your stuff broken and then almost set your lab on fire! It's just that Diana's really cute and sexy and I got distracted because I want to kiss her a lot, and I didn't pay attention to you because that was all I was thinking about-"

"Akko, please," Diana interjected, handing Akko a handkerchief. "Clean yourself and let me talk."

"Okay…" Akko took the handkerchief and started wiping her face as Diana turned back to Constanze.

"Like Akko was trying to say, the two of us are still in what's commonly referred to as the 'honeymoon phase,' so we just allowed ourselves to focus solely on our new relationship with no regard to what was happening around us. Obviously, this doesn't excuse our behavior, and neither Akko nor myself expect you to forgive us, immediately, but we hope that you will do so and eventually have us help you, again. I know that Akko really wants to work with you on another one of those robot things, and as for me, well, I'd really just like to get to know you, better, if that's alright."

"..." Constanze's face fell to the floor as she kicked the air a bit and shoved her hands in her pockets. "...It's alright."

"YAY!" Akko shouted, hugging Constanze with a newly clean face.

"My sentiments, exactly," Diana said with a smile.

"...Mrmrmrm," Constanze mumbled.

"Really?! You want us in the lab, right now?! Let's go, Diana!" Akko shouted, grabbing Diana's hand and pulling her onto Diana's bed. "You coming, Constanze?"

"Mmm." Constanze closed the door and walked back over to her bed, stopping at her bedpost.

The bedpost on the bottom left.

"Constanze, wait, that's the wrong-" It was too late. Constanze, a wicked smile on her face, pulled the lever, sending the two girls falling through a trapdoor that ended in a big splash.

One minute later, Akko and Diana reappeared with a slam of the door, their clothes dripping wet and alligators biting their butts.

""Why do you even have that lever?!"" Constanze just smiled at the both of them.


	4. Sucy's First Class Guinea Pig

"You are to stop experimenting on Akko, this instant," were the words Diana said to Sucy the second she walked into her room.

"Come in, I guess," Sucy said, not bothering to turn away from her current experiment (something involving a purple mushroom, a pink-colored liquid, and a bag of peanuts).

"I'm serious, Miss Manbavaran."

"What, because you switched to last names after being on a first name basis for three months?" Sucy asked, sprinkling the mushroom with a handful of peanuts.

"Yesterday, Akko couldn't take any notes in Numerology because something you fed her made her temporarily deaf."

"So what? She's just been copying all of your notes ever since you two started going out," Sucy said as she poured the liquid over the mushroom and peanuts.

"The day before that, Akko spent all of lunch vomiting out a giant worm."

"For all you know, she just ate some bad potatoes," Sucy said, poking her mushroom with a stick as the peanuts started growing hair.

"The day before _that_ , you gave Akko a potion that made her _think_ she was invisible, and if Lotte didn't catch her in time, she would have started running around school naked!"

"I'm guessing that one made you mad because _you're_ the only allowed to see her like that?" Sucy asked as the hairy peanuts wrapped themselves around the mushroom.

"How can you-we haven't even-that's not the point!" Diana shouted, completely red in the face. "Look, Manbavaran, I refuse to stand by and just let you use Akko as your personal guinea pig!"

"Want to take her place, then?"

"Pardon?" Sucy got up from her desk (Diana could see that the mushroom had turned into a small cube of hair), walked over to her bed, and pulled out a box from underneath it. The box, as Diana observed, was filled with numerous bottles that, themselves, were filled with liquids of varying colors.

"These are all the potions I've been working on the last week. I haven't tested them out on Akko yet because it's a big batch and I figured 'Hey, might as well try them all out in one go.'"

"You've got some-" Sucy put a finger in front of Diana's face, cutting her off.

"She's not going to test them out, though. You are, Diana," Sucy said with a sharp, toothy grin across her face.

"I'm going to do what, exactly?" Diana asked, her eyebrow raised in a quizzical manner.

"Be my guinea pig. Try out all of the potions in this box, right here and now."

"Are you insane?! I've seen what just one of your concoctions can do, and you want me to try… a dozen?!"

"You see that haircube on my desk? That's an artificial panacea, strong enough to nullify the effects of anything I've made. If it gets to be too much for you, just take the panacea and we're done. However, if you can get through everything in the box without doing that, I won't use Akko as a guinea pig for the rest of the semester."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Diana just stared at Sucy for a bit. Out of all the people she had made friends with in conjunction to becoming friends with Akko, Sucy was the one who was the hardest to trust. Even Amanda, for all of her abrasiveness, was at least obvious with her intentions. Sucy, meanwhile, was completely unpredictable; nothing she did at one moment gave any indication of what she'd do the next, and the same went for anything she said.

 _Still, if there's even a chance of keeping Akko a little bit safe…_ "We have a deal."

 **1.**

"Excellent. Now drink this," Sucy said, handing Diana a bottle of a clear-colored liquid.

"None of these will kill me, right?" Diana asked.

"Akko's still alive, isn't she?"

"That's not really the best answer, but I can't really back down at the start, I suppose." With slight hesitation, Diana popped off the top of the bottle and downed its contents. It only took a few seconds for Diana to spit it up onto the floor.

"Must be a far cry from caviar and white truffles."

"That was disgusting! What sort of potion could have that kind of foul flavor?!"

"Toilet water."

"Toilet-why?!" Diana shouted, spitting up even more of it.

"Sometimes I want to mess with Akko, but I just don't have the time to come up with a new potion. That makes sense, right?"

"No!"

 **2.**

"Okay, this isn't so bad," Diana said as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"Easy for you to say," Sucy said with a frown. "How do you think I feel finding out that something I literally poured my blood, sweat, and tears into just dyes someone's hair yellow."

"I think it's a good look for me. Not something I'd want to wear all the time, but-what did you say you put in here?"

 **3.**

"Now _this_ is more like it," Sucy said, smirking at the results of her potion.

"A tentacle! There's a tentacle coming out of my forehead!" Diana shouted. "Why would you need to make something like this?!"

"Why not?" Diana whipped her head around at Sucy, barely missing hitting her in the face with her new tentacle.

 **4.**

"I don't know, Diana, I think being bald really shows off the tentacle."

"I don't _want_ to show it off, though!"

 **5.**

"Wait, what happened now?" Diana asked after everything in the room became bigger.

"It looks like you turned yourself into a pickle, Diana," Sucy said.

"A… a pickle? Why? Am I immortal? Can I… Can I even do anything?"

"You wouldn't be much of a pickle if you could, Diana. Not like you're Solenya, or anything. Get over yourself."

 **6.**

"I can't believe all those other changes are still in effect," Diana said, looking over her body with disappointment.

"On the plus side, I guess I invented an anti-pickle serum," Sucy said. "There's probably some weirdoes who'll get a kick outta that."

"As long as you can profit, I suppose."

"Obviously. Also, as enjoyable a sight as it might be, please put your clothes back on."

"S-Sorry."

 **7.**

"So, Diana, just out of curiosity, can you fly with wings made entirely out of potato chips?"

"I don't know, and I really don't want to find out."

 **8.**

"A swastika made of chest hair? Are you serious?" Diana asked with completely warranted spite.

"Yeah, I know I didn't set out to do that, but I agree that that's in pretty bad taste," Sucy said. "Just for that, you don't have to drink two potions, 'kay?"

"Well, I guess having a swastika ended up being a good thing," Diana said, her face falling soon afterwards.

"Thank God for context, right?"

 **9.**

"SEqwAZAFW3WSE awD!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Qa1! Ahgfvhgrrdf64EU4EWSR67UTGVnhgwsdg!"

"HAHAHAHAHA! Try talking when it's not just gibberish! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

 **10.**

"Well, thanks to some unintentional Nazi branding, looks like we're down to the last one," Sucy said.

"wehdxRFJFCXry6rdc," Diana said, still in utter gibberish.

"Hope you know that, in all likelihood, this one will be the worst of them all. Not too late to take the panacea and give up," Sucy said with a toothy grin as she handed Diana a bottle of blue liquid.

"7I6TAHURFCFH4R5DCF." Sucy took that as a refusal. Thus, with slight hesitation, Diana downed the potion in one sitting. For a few seconds, nothing happened. But then all of a sudden, a comical "POP" sounded through the air and Diana fell to the floor.

"Oh my, I lost my balance there," Diana said. "Wait, did I say that? I said something? What about…" Diana rushed over to the mirror to look over her body. It was just as she thought: everything the potions did had vanished. Her hair was both back and restored to its original color, there was no tentacle on her forehead, no potato chip wings, no hairy swastika, no speaking in gibberish. She looked completely cured.

"Well this is a crappy ending," Sucy said with a frown.

"Sorry that I didn't meet your expectations, but that was never part of our arrangement."

"What arrangement?" A new voice asked. Diana and Sucy both turned their heads to see Akko standing in the doorway.

"Nothing, Akko. Sucy and I just had a little bet that I won, and both of our lives are going to be much easier for a while." Sucy stuck her tongue out at this.

"I don't really get it, but thanks!" Akko walked into the room and brought Diana in for a hug that was immediately reciprocated.

 _This made it all worth it,_ Diana told herself. _Making sure Akko's safe and happy will always put a smile on my face. As long as we're together, there's nothing I won't do to-_

"Ah!" Akko suddenly shouted, pulling away from Diana. "What the hell? Something just poked me!"

"What do you…" Diana felt something odd below her waist. Something that probably, most definitely shouldn't be there. Feeling more nervous than any of the potions had made her, Diana looked down towards the ground.

Her skirt was being slightly lifted up. Sucy couldn't stop laughing.

In the end, Akko remained as Sucy's guinea pig. However, Diana broke both of her hands for three weeks, so it all evened out, in the end.


	5. Akko Kagari, the Spectacular Spider-Girl

Much to Akko's surprise, she was actually going to make it to school on time. Something like that hadn't happened since the time she ran out of her apartment with a piece of bread in her mouth, no socks, and hair still wrapped in a towel, all the while completely oblivious to the fact that there was a two hour delay thanks to snow.

 _But today, I'm just oozing with luck!_ Akko told herself. _Didn't sleep through my alarm, Aunt Mako made me my favorite breakfast, managed to get the first train down to Manhattan, and I even won an impromptu dance off! Nothing's gonna get in my way, now!_ All of a sudden, there was a tingling sensation in the back of Akko's head.

"Except that," Akko said. "Can't even get one day, apparently…" With an audible sigh, Akko dashed into a nearby alley, getting as far back as she could so as much of her was obscured by shadows, as possible. Then, after making sure no one was near the alley, she threw her bag down next to a dumpster, put the ring and middle finger of each hand down on her palm, and pointed her hands at herself.

In an instant, streams of white material, Akko's webbing, shot out of her wrists and wrapped around her body. As it did, certain parts of the webbing on certain parts of her body began to change color and take on unique designs. The webbing around her head turned into a red, full face mask with large, white eyes. The webbing around her legs turned into blue leggings with red tips at the toes. The webbing around the arms and torso stayed its original white, save for the yellow coloring around her hands and seven spots on her chest shaped like the Big Dipper. The spots weren't just regular spots, though; the spots were shaped like spiders, a design complimented by the web pattern spread across the entirety of Akko's costume.

"Show time," Akko said as her costume was complete. Akko jumped onto the wall across from, her hands and feet sticking to the surface with ease, and crawled up the wall until she was on the roof. After that, she fired another shot of web onto a nearby building and swung herself through the air, repeating the process whenever it became necessary.

 _Okay, Spider-Sense is telling me that there's trouble over… there!_ Down below was the standard New York scene of violence. A gaggle of tough guys (in this case four)dragging a defenseless girl into an alleyway, either wanting to rob her, kill her, violate her, or some combination of all of them.

"Oh, hell to the no!" The defenseless girl in this case was apparently one Diana Cavendish, meaning Akko had incentive to go full-ass on this instead of half-ass. As such, before one of the guys could even touch Diana, Akko shot herself down towards the ground like a rocket and kicked him to the ground, knocking him out in one blow.

"'Scuse me, gents, but I'm looking for the local jail. You mind directing me towards it? I have to warn you, though, I'm bad at remembering directions, so you'll probably have to come with me for me to get it."

"Hey, it's that Spider-Chick!" One of the guys said.

"He says, ten seconds after my arrival. I'm guessing you weren't one of the bright ones in school. I'd say that that's why you're a criminal, but I know, like, five baddies with PhDs, so who can say?"

"Get them!" Another guy shouted as they all pulled out knives.

"You better run, Di-miss!" Akko said to Diana. "Don't want you getting hurt on my-" Before Akko could finish, Diana had ran up to one of the crooks, disarmed him with a powerful palm strike to the wrist, then kicked him into a wall. "Actually, you do you." Akko then proceeded to duck a stabbing without even turning towards her assailant, followed by throwing said assailant into the air and sticking him to a wall with a shot of web.

"Damn Spider-Chick!" The last robber shouted as he charged at Akko.

"Girl. Spider- _Girl_. You know, I wanted to be Spider-Woman, but you guys were the ones who decided to call me Spider-Girl, so the least you can do is remember it." Akko fired a ball of web at the hand the robber held the knife in, completely wrapping it up. The man continued to charge at Akko, but before he could reach her, Dian ran in and punched him in the face, sending the man hurtling towards the ground with no consciousness to speak of.

"You know, you are definitely one of the toughest damsels I've taken out of distress," Akko said.

"Thanks. I've studied a great deal of martial arts, so I tend to be prepared for these kinds of situations," Diana said. "I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't running on adrenaline brought out from the excitement of meeting you."

"Really?"

"I'm sort of, kind of, a great fan of your work."

"R-Really?" Now more than ever was Akko glad that she went with red for her mask. "I-I mean, of course you are! I have lots of fans! Fans for days! Fans out the wazoo! This is no surprise at all, really! Not one bit!"

"Oh, okay," Diana said, her face appearing crestfallen. That was certainly a damper on Akko's mood. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?!" Akko shouted, moving right in front of Diana. Spidey-Sense wasn't telling her anything, so that couldn't be good.

"I'm going to be late for school!" Akko just stared at Diana (taking care to not be a weirdo about it)before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I guess it'd be pretty hard to get to Luna Nova before the first bell, at this time of day."

"You know I go to Luna Nova?" Akko really wanted to punch herself.

"Whoa, what?! I do?! Guess the ol' Spidey-Sense is stronger than I thought! Hahaha!"

"Either that or you saw the logo on my backpack."

"Yeah, let's go with that! Anyway, um… need a ride?"

* * *

"Did you hear what happened with Diana Cavendish?"

"She got jumped by some guys on her way to school, but then Spider-Girl saved her."

"No way! That's awesome!"

"I wish Spider-Girl would save _me_!"

"I saw Spider-Girl swing into the school parking lot and drop Diana off for first period."

"Diana totally had her face in her boobs, too, and Spider-Girl looked like she liked it."

"I knew Spider-Girl was gay!"

"Man, why do the hottest chicks have to be lesbians?"

"I'm not gay, but if it was Diana Cavendish…"

"No question about Spider-Girl, though. Switch teams in a heartbeat for her."

"Amen!"

It was at this point that Akko slammed her head into the cafeteria table, groaning out as much of her frustrations that she could.

"Are you alright, Akko?" Lotte asked.

"Obviously not, Lotte," Akko said. "Haven't you been listening? Thanks to my little morning rendezvous with Diana, there's all sorts of crazy rumors going around about Spider-Girl being a lesbian going around picking up high school girls."

"That's not _in_ accurate, though," Sucy said, biting into a slice of mushroom pizza. "The only part they're getting wrong is that you actually _can_ get girls."

"Sucy, when was the last time _you_ had a girlfriend?"

"Point taken." Sucy didn't really look defeated, though.

"This isn't how I wanted to start off my superhero career. I mean, yeah, Spider-Girl was gonna come out eventually, but it would've been after at least a year, not five months."

"Aw, quit your whining, Akko," Amanda said, biting into an apple. "Do you not get how this is a good thing? You just found out that Diana's Spider-Girl's biggest fan!"

"She didn't say biggest, Diana's above those kinds of cliches, and what's your point?"

"My point is that if Diana has a thing for Spider-Girl, then that means she has a thing for _you_." Akko's head shot up from the table, red as the marinara sauce on her tray.

"Th-Th-That doesn't mean that! Even if it does, so what?! It's not like I can just tell Diana so she'll go out with me. There's a reason it's called a _secret_ identity."

"Mmmrm," Constanze mumbled.

"None of you count! You were all just freak accidents! ...Except Jasminka, I was just really stressed out from having so many people learn it so fast."

"I'm just happy to be included," Jasminka said, biting into a sandwich.

"All I'm saying is that if you want to get anywhere with Diana, you need to do _something_ other than just pussyfooting around," Amanda said.

"Last time I checked, I never hired you to be my wingman!" Akko shouted, standing up from her seat. "The way I deal with Diana has nothing to do with you, or anyone else!"

"And how, exactly, do you need to deal with me?"

"BWAH!" The appearance of a new voice shocked Akko, and even though she turned to face the speaker, she already knew that it was Diana who, of course, was with Hannah and Barbara.

"Well?"

"O-Oh, that? I just meant that they couldn't tell me how to deal with you when I asked how you were doing! How _are_ you doing, Diana? Are you okay?"

"She's perfectly fine, _obviously_ ," Hannah said.

"Didn't you hear? Diana got saved by Spider-Girl! _That's_ someone who can give a girl comfort, unlike _you_ ," Barbara said, Hannah joining in for a laugh.

"Yeah, because you two are a couple of teddy bears," Akko said.

"What was that-"

"That's enough," Diana cut in, stopping Barbara and making her and Hannah step back. "As for your question, Akko, I'm fine. I'm still a little rattled from this morning, but otherwise, I'll manage. However, I do want to go straight home today, so there won't be LGBT association, today."

"Oh, okay," Akko said. She was about to open her mouth and say something more, but the school bell rang. Lunch was over.

"I'll see you in calculus, Akko."

"Y-Yeah, same." Diana, Hannah, and Barbara turned from Akko and her group to head for their next class. Before they left the cafeteria, however, Diana turned back to Akko, looked at her for a few seconds, and smiled before turning away, again.

"Well would you look at that!" Amanda sneered.

"There's nothing to look at!"

* * *

Akko was being stupid. Completely and utterly stupid. The fact that she was aware of this, yet did nothing to change her course of action, only served to make her even stupider, when it really came down it. Yet here she was, talking to Diana, in the middle of the city.

"Hey. How's it going?" While dressed as Spider-Girl.

"S-Spider-Girl! Um… it's going fine," Diana managed to say. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well there I was, punching Doc Ock in the face to stop him from robbing a bank." This is something that actually did happen. "I get the guy all tied up, hand him off to the cops, but then I get the strangest feeling that the kickass chick I saved this morning might not be feeling all that hot. Am I on the money?"

"Um, I guess…" Diana said, gripping the strap on her backpack and staring at the sidewalk. "Would it be alright if we could talk?"

"Talk? Yeah, sure! Let's talk! You and me, one on one, womano a womano, let's do that! ...But not here. We're kind of drawing a crowd.

* * *

Five minutes later, Akko and Diana were sitting on a rooftop with half-eaten Burger King at their sides.

"When I arrived at school, everyone started talking about the two of us," Diana said.

"I-Is that right?" Akko asked.

"They started talking about how great it was to be saved by you." Akko breathed a sigh of relief. "How jealous they were that I, and I, alone, was saved by the _Spectacular_ Spider-Girl. I know I put up a brave front, I even beat up some of those guys-"

"You sure did."

"-but the truth is that I was just really scared the whole time that was happening. If I made one misstep or if you came just a second later than you did, I could have… God, I must sound so pathetic."

"No way!" Akko said, turning to be right in front of Diana. "Being scared doesn't make you pathetic, Diana! Acknowledging your fear makes you strong because only an idiot doesn't own up to their fears! I may be super strong and have spider webs coming out of my wrists, but I'm still always really scared that something bad's gonna happen! But I still go out there, so don't be afraid of being afraid!" Diana just stared at Akko for a few seconds before grabbing her hands and nodding her head.

"Oh, sorry!" Diana said, sheepishly letting go of Akko's hands.

"D-Don't worry about it! I have strong hands, so I didn't even feel a thing!" Akko said, her words underlined with laughter.

"Right. How _did_ you get your powers, anyway?"

"Same old story. Girl meets magical radioactive spider, magical radioactive spider's fangs meet girl's flesh, next thing the girl knows, she's got all sorts of spider powers. Super strength, wall climbing, web-slinging, the works. Even made my body go from zero to hero. Grew a couple of inches, got some tone in my stomach, my boobs got bigger-"

"Really?" Diana asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They did! Before that spider, I was flat as a board! Sure, I still don't really have anything, but at least I went from nothing to 'Hey, look, those exist!'" Diana burst out in laughter. "Bet if my body was as great as yours, I'd have people calling me Spider- _Woman_. What do you do, anyway?"

"Nothing, really. Just some basic workouts."

"I hate you, so much," Akko said, this time joining Diana in her laughter.

"You know, Spider-Girl, you kind of remind me of this friend of mine."

"Really?" Akko asked, raising an eyebrow under her mask.

"Really. She was one of the first people I met when I moved to the States two years ago. When I first got to know her, I thought that she was just this loud, obnoxious moron who only cared about herself-"

"This is _me_?"

"No, what's you is what I realised she was like when we started to get to know each other: strong, brave, determined, always seeing the best in people, and always lending someone a hand not because she wants something, but because it's the right thing to do. Before I even knew it, this girl started being one of the best people I knew, and whenever I look at you, it makes me think of her."

"R-Really?"

"That's not weird, is it?"

"N-No! Of course it isn't weird! It's flattering, really! I'm honored to be compared to someone as great as Akko, and I'm sure Akko would be honored to know that someone thinks of her when they think of me!"

"That's a relief to hear."

"Good!"

"But speaking of hearing…"

"Yeah?"

"I don't remember hearing myself ever say the name Akko."

"...What?" Time seemed to come to a halt as the weight of Diana's words sunk in.

"I said that I never said Akko before you did, 'Spider-Girl'."

"Um… Spidey-Sense?"

"Spider-Girl." Diana stared at Akko with a familiar stare. The same stare she gave Akko whenever she dozed off in one of their tutoring sessions or acted up in class or bought her honeydew from the fruit bar. It was a stare that, under no special circumstances, ever accepted any amount of nonsense.

"How did you know?"

"Well, unlike the rest of our class, I actually noticed that Spider-Girl tends to show up whenever you disappear. I also noticed the… the physical enhancements you mentioned." Once more, Akko was glad that her mask was red. "Then there was today. Our school's logo is on our backpack, but it wasn't actually in your line of sight. You also don't talk as quietly with your friends as you think you do."

"What?!"

"Don't worry. No one else heard because no one else was paying attention. Then there's the fact that a few hours after I made it clear to Akko that I wasn't feeling all that good, Spider-Girl showed up to check in on me. So…"

"So…"

"So you think I have a great body, do you? How long has that been going on, for?"

"Um… probably since the day we met," Akko said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

"Then I feel pretty stupid for taking a year to feel the same," Diana said, the statement nearly making Akko fall over.

"I really wish this wasn't happening now. I really wish this wasn't happening when things in my life weren't so complicated. I got all these powers, and there's the Green Goblin, and five different evil doctors, and this vampire from another dimension who wants to eat my soul, or something. Plus the Avengers never want me around, and Aunt Mako needs help with the bills-"

"Akko." Diana cut Akko off with a kiss to where her lips would be if she wasn't wearing a mask.

"...But I can forget about that every once in awhile."

"Good to hear." Diana started pulling Akko's mask up, but Akko quickly pulled her hands away.

"Not like this. Let's go somewhere just as private as this, but with things to hang on so I can be upside-down. I've always wanted to kiss you while being upside-down!"

* * *

 **With this, I finish my first ever pairing week… minus two days. Not as easy an activity as I thought it was, but still fun, nonetheless. Let's see if I can do every day, the next time one of these rolls around!**


End file.
